Romania’s story at the first World Cup

1930 is one of the most important year in football’s history, but also for Romanian football. You might already know why 1930 is that much important for world football and if you’re thinking about the first World Cup, you’re right. Before going there, I will highlight the fact which makes this year important for the Romanian football.

1930 is the year when Romanian Football Federation is founded (F.R.F.A. – Federatia Romana de Fotbal Asociatie) by the Romanian Federation of Sports Societies, although today’s F.R.F. (Romanian Football Federation) adopted its foundation year of 1909 when actually it was created the Romanian Football Clubs Asociation (Asociatia cluburilor de foot-ball din Romania). In different words, the activity of the Romanian football clubs has been coordinated by FRFA (FRF, later on) ever since.

FIFA president of those times, Jules Rimet came up with the idea of an World Cup. His dream came true in 1930 when Uruguay organized the tournament. All the participating teams were invisted and luckily, Romania was one of them. FRFA honored the invitation and sent 20 persons. 15 of them were the following football players:Goalkeepers: Ion Lapusneanu, Samuel ZauberDefenders: Adalbert Steiner, Emerich Vogl, Iosif Czako, Rudolf BuergerMidfileders: Alfred Eisenbeisser, Corneliu Robe, Ladislau Raffinsky,Forwarders: Adalbert Desu, Constantin Stanciu, Ilie Subaseanu, Nicolae Kovacs, Rudolf Wetzer, Stefan Barbu

The Romanian delegation departed to Geneva by Trieste train in the morning of 18th of June, at 08:05. The team arrived to Geneva two days later. Not much time after the arrival, they embarked on “Conte Verde” ship.